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The story
According to an article distributed by Jiji Press on October 12, corporate data leaks caused by unauthorized access keep piling up, and the government is struggling to respond. Misuse of AI is cited as a factor behind the trend, but beyond basic information-gathering/sharing and “raising awareness” — things like banning easily-guessed passwords — the government has yet to offer any effective countermeasures. The thread reacting to this showed a wide range of responses: confusion over what exactly people are supposed to be “careful” about when told to “stay alert,” differing views on how much real harm actually follows from a personal-data leak, and criticism of Japan’s long-standing policy of treating IT engineers poorly.
Distributed Mon, 10/12, 19:12 — Jiji Press
Corporate data leaks from unauthorized access show no sign of stopping, and the government is struggling to respond.
Misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) has been cited as a factor behind the surge in incidents, but for now the government has no real countermeasures beyond basic information-gathering/sharing and “raising awareness” — things like banning easily-guessed passwords.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Guess we'll just have to keep leaking like a sieve for the next few years.
Let's make Okinawan the official language
and cuneiform the writing system.
If AI's being used for this, just identify which AI it was,
make the AI company pay damages, make it really hurt,
and have them improve the AI so it can't be used for crime anymore lol
How would you even identify it?
Sounds like you just want to slap a false charge and damage on that company.
And wouldn't the "improved" AI just get re-improved to be abused even harder?
For people who already signed up it's too late, so is this just telling the people who haven't signed up yet to never sign up?
Honestly, if some average person's personal info leaks, worst case you just get a few scam calls and emails. No need to sweat it.
Can't really say that for sure.
If you get specifically targeted for some reason, there's no escaping it.
If they even got a photo of your driver's license, they can open bank accounts in your name online and sell them off — your life's basically ruined.
All they said was that submitting your address and photo is optional, so just refuse it — isn't it already too late for most people?
Even the government's just saying "defend yourself," so…
Your My Number data can leak regardless of whether you ever made the card or not.
Though if you're so broke that even burglars and thieves would pity you, maybe you really are a true winner.
isn't there always some company that jinxes itself by saying "Our system is rock-solid, customers can rest easy"?
(Setting a "flag" — anime/drama slang for tempting fate right before disaster strikes.)
You saw what happened to Kumamoto after saying that, right?
Though that one was an earthquake.
your name and address are already out there,
so just decide you don't need to care anymore.
I think that's realistically true.
From here on it's really about the phase of protecting your actual assets.
That's the right answer.
Eat something good and forget about it.
Well, your name and address have been floating around in university alumni directories for ages anyway.
That's because the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) thinks of programmers as just interchangeable manpower anyone can do.
It all builds up over time, doesn't it.
Everything does.
is like asking us to defend against Fujii Sota's attack (Japan's shogi prodigy)
— no way lol
If you're playing shogi against Fujii Sota, sure, that's true, but in a boxing match you might actually win. Basically — let's all become cavemen.
Just punch Fujii Sota and problem solved.
Feels like they could've mass-hired the STEM grads from the Employment Ice Age generation (those who graduated into Japan's long job-market freeze) into the Defense Agency or the Ministry of Internal Affairs and handled cybersecurity that way.
They cut labor costs by scaling back permanent hiring, so nobody's been coming into the field for maybe 20 years now.
If they'd gone all in and said "we're cutting costs so we're handing it all to AI," that'd at least make sense. Hand protection over to a sufficiently advanced AI and it might actually be the strongest option.
But they didn't even do that — they're doing it by hand with a tiny handful of connections-hired, near-retirement staff lol. All because people want a stable paycheck lol.
Makes you wonder if "cutting labor costs" was less about efficiency and more about wanting to hire more people through connections lol
I mean, same as how President Roosevelt secured jobs through public works like dam construction during the Great Depression —
back then Japan probably should've secured jobs for the Ice Age generation "as civil servants" in cybersecurity and defense.
Maybe today Japan would even be winning in AI and drones.
Wouldn't it be better to create a dedicated systems-engineer track in the civil service even now?
Like a mid-career hire track.
They can't beat private-sector salaries, but if they drop the age limit, a decent number of people would probably apply.
Background and key points of this discussion
In Japan, a 2019 survey by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) estimated the country could face a shortfall of up to 790,000 IT workers by 2030, and a structural talent shortage in the cybersecurity field is part of why the government’s response has stayed stuck at “raising awareness.” Opinions in the thread split between those who shrugged off personal-data leaks as “nothing to be done about it at this point” and those who argued that leaks involving photos or home addresses carry a much higher risk of misuse. Some posts also quoted remarks attributed to a specific cabinet minister, but any claims that couldn’t be verified were not included in this article. The core of the thread’s frustration was that the “raising awareness” advice itself never went beyond basics like “don’t use easily guessed passwords,” without offering any concrete measures to prevent real harm after a leak occurs.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Unauthorized Access] Data Leaks Keep Coming, Government Struggles — Stuck Relying on “Raising Awareness,” Few Real Options.”
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